Folks push back with surprising frequency when I talk about the proper way to do a valve job or rehabilitate an engine's cylinders or the right parts and techniques to use in rebuilding a carburetor. I get it. I understand the real world, that there are financial and other reasons for not doing a thing exactly, perfectly right. For, in short, not using best practices. But when people want to argue the very idea of best practice, as if there is no such thing? No. That, I don't get. And frankly, I have little patience for it. It is the ultimate form of denial.

There is good, better and best in every facet of life. I had some spicy queso for lunch the other day. I know the dip I was eating wasn't one-hundred percent cheese. No way. Cheese-based products are among the most adulterated of foods. Additives such as cellulose, corn starch and who knows what else are used to stretch the stuff out, make it more cheaply. But it's still called "cheese", isn't it? Unless you read the fine print somewhere, you don't know how much cheese is in your cheese. And usually not even then. But no one has to tell you that in the cheese world there is good and not so good. Just as in wine, tax preparation and housepaint. Right? Part of being a smart consumer is realizing there is such a thing as due diligence. Well, best practices are like that. It's simply looking at things realistically. Staying with the food example let's consider the span between similarly-appearing aged New York sharp cheddar and Cheese Whiz. Whoa! Now there's a spectrum! Where do you want to fall within that range? Somewhere in the middle is, I suppose, "pub cheese". First taste, not bad. After that, and minus the requisite (and discriminating-numbing) beer—ugh! Definitely there is a ways to go to get to the real thing even from there. The point is this. There is indeed a range of acceptable quality. In everything. And we know to shoot for the top whenever possible. There is such a thing as the best practice in powersports vehicle maintenance and you deny that fact when you unwisely and indiscrimanently use aftermarket gaskets, oil filters and air filters, and reuse your drain plug washer so many times it curls up like a potato chip. (An abundance of food allegories here today. Hmm.) Are all aftermarket products bad? No, of course not. But so many non-OEM powersports part are in fact inferior one has to be diligent. Has to be. Or buying crap will become endemic.

You have choices. You know that intuitively. And you practice it every day in all areas of your life. Why not treat owning a vintage Honda and acquiring parts and services for it the same way? Why not turn off your computer, get off Facebook and "face" reality? Social media is not doing you any favors. Electronic sources of advice do not celebrate best practices. They are invariably about the sensational, the tittilating, the up to the moment trends. Elon Musk said it best when he opined that social media rewards click-rate, not excellence. Think about that for a minute. It isn’t truth that user forums and Facebook and YouTube promote, it’s sensationalism. Also realize that doing something the right way is not necessarily at odds with doing it economically. Like my website motto says, Quality doesn't cost, it pays!